organizing separate units of colleges under one business management, with the economy of common plants for all their material machinery, but with separate faculty, equipment, and social organization. The great need for more undergraduate colleges well administered could thus be met by the establishment of branch colleges, which would not have to go through the period of crudity and experimentation which a wholly new institution is virtually bound to suffer; and the problem of overgrowth of some of the existing colleges in which true education for the individual student is hardly possible, could be happily solved. President Taylor believed so strongly in this solution of "The Problem of the Larger College" that in his last report to the trustees of Vassar he stated that he left this idea as a heritage to the college.

Such a slight sketch of President Taylor's attitude towards woman's education and his theories about it hardly touches his real work, nor would a summary of the facts of his administration and the gifts of money and buildings which he secured for the college be more adequate. He was a great educator because his personality was greater than all his theories and his visible work, and his spirit made its impress inevitably upon the students of the college. The point most emphasized in the tributes published in the Vassar Weekly and Vassar Quarterly after his death was his tremendous interest in individual human beings, his sympathy and understanding, his magnetic drawing out of the best in the person talking with him. That unfailing gift of caring for people was what won for President Taylor the devotion of hundreds of Vassar alumnae. It was also what gave to hundreds of alumnae who teach or work in multiform ways for their fellows their standard for the possibilities of such service.

In the articles already written about President Taylor, strangely enough little has been said of that well-spring of pure religion which was the never-failing source of his life and character. It is difficult. to write of a man's religion without using words of too conventional or pious connotation. But no one who worked with Dr. Taylor could help knowing that religion for him was simply there, the secret of things, the motor force. The depth of his religious nature was part of his power as a great educator.

In his life-time various monumenta were established in honor of his name: library fund, chair of philosophy, gate to campus, rose window in chapel, Taylor Hall,-a beautiful art building. But his

real monument more lasting than bronze is his living inspiration to the graduates of the college. The larger world of education, too, will remember him as one who (in the words of President Wheeler of the University of California when he conferred the degree of Doctor of Laws upon him) "contulit ad quaestionum difficilium solutionem in arte docendi fidem profundam, animum bonum, mentem fortem robustamque."

MAIDING WITH MAIDS

LAURA BELLE STEPHENS

Member of the Illinois-Iowa Branch and Assistant to the Pastor of the Broadway Presbyterian Church, Rock Island, Ill.

"All Human Affairs Are Characterized with the Divine.”—Aurelius.

In "Tramping with Tramps" by Josiah Flint, I found these passages: "I saw fellow students in the scientific laboratories working to discover the minutest parasitic forms of life," and "I have learned concerning human parasites by an experience, a tramp with tramps."

I, myself, being an ardent student of sociology, when I read these words was led into an adventure with maids and waitresses. I have worked for several years during my summer vacations, for several weeks at a time, among the girls who do domestic service and serve the public in hotels and I find that their life is one of the many economic problems that we have as yet utterly failed to solve. The community has refused to meet the girl who cares for its homes. Who is the community? We are. You and I. One must meet the individual in order to meet the community. To do this one must begin at both ends and work to the middle for a clear understanding and then reach up to find a plane of harmony and happiness.

The maid problem has two sides. Let us study the maid side for a change. Will you, college and university women, who read these varied experiences, follow them with sympathy and understanding? This article consists of a number of anecdotes from

which you may make your own deductions. May some girl benefit by them. The experiences are not told chronologically nor are they placed in the correct localities. They are simply detached bits of fact.

I once entered a home-I mean a flat-where the mother was quite old, and where the daughter in the thirties, and in public life, received me dressed in a kimono, hair down, cloth around an aching head. This young woman presented a decidedly dishevelled appearance and the house was disorderly, dust everywhere, clothes thrown about, the bath room one mass of towels and bottles. The dining room table was covered with left-overs, and the kitchen-well, stop to take a breath-just two wash tubs filled with dishes! The sink and draining board were stacked with pots, kettles and garbage; two chairs were over-flowing with groceries just delivered; the ice box revealed neglect and unsanitation.

I hope the woman to whose home this description belongs is reading this article. Oh, yes, I do, for maybe another maid will not have to endure what I, a maid in disguise, did for four hours.

I chose this place from among several others because it was recommended as a refined home. The daughter was a teacher in the University of......... That sounded good to my B.A. sensibilities, but I was soon disillusioned. The suffering young woman very adroitly talked to me in the living room, which was but little disordered, and told me what my duties would be. Seeing is believing sometimes. I did not want the "job" until the next day; but being a fellow-sufferer from headaches, I gave in to her plea to begin at once; so putting on her apron (my baggage was at the station) I entered the kitchen described. My first impulse was to turn around and tell her who I was, and just what I thought of a University woman misrepresenting conditions to one coming to be employed as a maid. But I did not. I "tackled" the dishes, cleaned up the kitchen, and was ready to get luncheon in a short time. I asked her to plan the first menu and to tell me the amount of food to prepare. When it was ready to serve I saw that it would be necessary for me to cultivate a bird's appetite. There were three of us to eat the luncheon, for the headache had not affected the young woman's appetite, and there was not enough food for one hearty person. Truly, it was disgracefully economical. It is an excellent place for a corpulent maid was my inward comment: "Much exercise, little food and you grow thin."

When I agreed to take the place, I had insisted on keeping an appointment, which I had in the city, for three o'clock. As I left the house, my employer gave me fifty cents and asked me to get some fish for dinner. Later, I decided that I would not return, but what should I do with the money I had received for the fish? I returned it in stamps-I hope she was not surprised. That was too much of an experience for me. I refused to be a drudge in such a place even to get experience. No wonder the lady was having headaches. I was the sixth maid to apply in two days, I found out later at the agency.

It is well to know the other person's point of view, whether it be fellow maid or housewife. When a college graduate goes maiding shall she wear the kind of dress that she thinks a maid ought to wear or the kind of dress a maid ordinarily does wear? I am sure anyway, that my general appearance almost cost me a situation when I started out to look for a "job" on one occasion. I took plain but neat clothes-such clothes as a woman with my point of view would suppose a sensible maid should wear. I went to an employment bureau, and received the name of a wealthy woman in the suburbs of one of our large cities. At her home I was admitted by the parlor maid, who gazed at me with an air of contempt when I told her that I had come to see Mrs. A. about getting a place as a maid.

When Mrs. A. came in, I wish you could have seen her expression. I nearly laughed out loud. I did not know what was the matter, but the whole situation seemed intensely amusing. In a few minutes, I found out from her questions that she doubted my being a genuine maid, but as I answered every question firmly, (having been quizzed by school superintendents had been splendid training to prepare one to meet the equally quizzical housewife), she hired me. In my opinion no ordinary maid could have met that questioning, and I know now I had to undergo it because of my dressa plain gray skirt, white shirt waist, black hat with a bunch of daisies on one side, and tan shoes with medium heels. I was too much of a contrast to the "dolled up" maid of the usual type and the lady could not understand it. I learned from this experience to seek employment in "frills and bows."

This vanity in dress, I think, is partly due to the clothes the maids see in the homes where they work, and also it must be taken into consideration that they have few opportunities to wear pretty

clothes, the critical "upper classes" condemning this harmless, if not sensible safety valve. Nevertheless, the girl has triumphed thus far and "dolls up" to her heart's content.

The next time, I was seeking almost any kind of “job.” I did not care much; I was looking for "color." I happened to drift into an ordinary agency. You know there are different grades of agencies and you meet a class of women corresponding to the grade of the agency. I had spent a very happy two weeks with friends, when the "wanderlust" for a "job" came over me, and to Chicago I went. I found a list of agencies, and started out. I did not like the building, I did not like the elevator, I did not like the men in the corridor-but I thought that young girls who are really hunting situations must face these conditions and so I must go There was a waiting room for men and one for womenI was most thankful for that.

on.

I found a large number of women of a very common type crowded into this small waiting room. It was summer and it was hot. The odor-well, I nearly ran-no, I was one of them, so I stayed. I was quite "dolled up" and surely not the same type of servant as the rest of them. Many of these women were between forty and fifty, quite old to be seeking work of this type, and yet, they must earn a livelihood. I learned much from their conversation. In spite of my efforts to join in the talk I was kept out, most rudely to my notion, but most justly to theirs. Why should they talk to that young upstart who had good clothes and was hunting a "big job"? If they had only known that I was there to learn of their life and maybe some day, might in a small way, be able to offer others of their kind a brighter vision of life, I might have been better received.

I wish to protest against the business methods of these agencies from the point of view of the "job hunter," although I recognize the business side of the agency. I was the last one of that group of twenty women to come into the waiting room, but I was the second one to be called into the office. No doubt the office boy had told the manager that there was a "find" in the waiting room. I did not blame these women for showing their resentment in looks and even unkind words. How I longed to stop and talk to them, but I could not do that and carry out my investigation.

It has fallen to my lot to board for eighteen years. During that time I have been in all kinds of homes, boarding houses, cafe